1975 Topps Mini Baseball

In 1975 Topps hit gold with a parallel mini set of the baseball series. The cards are about a 1/4 of an inch smaller than the standard 2.5" x 3.5" cards. Not as small as tobacco cards but still smaller than the standard size. I think they were sold in separate packs, I'm not sure since I never had any back in the day, I only had the standard cards back in '75 and I got a whole bunch of them then. Sadly most of my '75s were traded away in 77 - 79 or so in a card "flipping/tossing trading" game. Anyway right now I only have 4 of these cards. I have not paid more than $10 per for them. I'm not sure if its the ones I have or if its a standard thing but I've noticed the colors on the minis seem to be a bit darker, maybe it is because they didn't get distributed as widely as the regular ones did so they haven't been exposed to the elements as much. The first one I got I already had the regular one of (or made sure I had the regular one as well since it is a fave player). Tug McGraw - Mets.
 

 1975 Topps Baseball Mini - 67 Tug McGraw Mets

(Front and Back)

Now here is the regular sized Tug card, even though the scans are approx. the same size:

 1975 Topps Baseball - 67 Tub McGraw Mets

(Front and Back)

With my other three minis I will show them in the order I think I got them in starting with the man who was the last skipper of the Montreal Expos and thus became the first skipper of the Washington Nationals Frank Robinson. This was from his playing years.

 1975 Topps Baseball Mini - 580 Frank Robinson Indians

(Front and Back)

I think I have his regular card, not sure I also thought I had the regular card of this next player but again I'm not sure. Don Sutton who also has a Washington Nationals connection he was the color commentator for MASN (Mid-Atlantic Sports Network) the cable station that broadcasts the Nationals games for television.

 1975 Topps Baseball Mini - 220 Don Sutton Dodgers

(Front and Back)

This final card is the final mini I have I also have it's regular mate. Both I got through sportlots.com I had ordered the mini version and the seller sent the regular version, I wasn't sure if I still had the regular version, but I requested s/he send the mini since that was the one I ordered (I think I ended up getting one of them for free) eventually I got the mini version. It is the Team Card of the Baltimore Orioles w/ the team checklist on back, unfortunately both checklists have been marked.

 1975 Topps Baseball Mini - 117 Baltimore Orioles TC

(Front and Back)

 1975 Topps Baseball - 117 Baltimore Orioles TC

(Front and Back)

Now just for fun the size comparison of the Baltimore Orioles cards:

Mattel Instant Replay Discs

 

 Back in the day early 1970s around '71/'72 Mattel released a wonderful electronic audio toy. The Portable Instant Replay Record Player. The hand held audio device used batteries (1 D cell) and played these little 2.5" records. The player came with 4 discs to start your collection off, then they sold sets of 4 discs of football, baseball, basketball, racing and mixed sports. I forget if Hockey was included or not. The little button on the side basically was just a play/eject button, it might of had a fast forward but I think it was just play/stop/eject. Every once in a while Ebay will have some of the discs available and sometimes the players.

Instant Replay Black Disc back.

I had the blue version of the player which I think was the first generation one, my brother had the Red version which I think came about a year later (1972) with "double sided" discs. Those discs had two pictures on the disc but I think just played on one side. The quality of the recordings was not that great, and as your battery ran down so did the playing of whatever was on the disc.

Back in the day my brother and I had about two dozen of the discs or so. There were many players I recall knowing about because I had this "toy". Over the years the discs were lost to time, or rather the "utility room" in our basement. Many of the discs sell for between $10-$30 or more sometimes you can find lots of several of the discs for a better price.

Anyway my rebuilt collection of the discs (useless as audio records unless I can find a working player for a decent price) are shown below. The Frank Robinson disc I got for $15.00 at my local card shop and the Sonny Jurgensen I got for $6.99 (+$2.00 postage) from Ebay.

 

 Sonny Jurgensen

The Ebay seller sent as a bonus an unopened pack of 1991 Upper Deck The Quarterback's Challenge cards distributed by Domino's Pizza. I'm debating if I should open the pack or not.

Some vintage Baseball

I bought 3 cards from another member at TCC and he added 2 bonus cards plus some wax packs (I'll make another post for the wax packs, I've gone over my limit on labeling to include all the years of everything and the other 2 brands.)

OK so I bought:

 1964 Topps 260 Frank Robinson Reds

 1964 Topps 306 "Giant Gunners"

Willie Mays & Orlando Cepeda

1973 Topps 90 Brook Robinson Orioles

And Got BONUS CARDS:

1979 Topps 417 All-Time Record Holders

STRIKEOUTS Nolan Ryan (Season) & Walter Johnson (Career)

 1982 Topps 636 Philadelphia Phillies Team Leaders

 '81 Batting & Pitching Leaders

 Pete Rose & Steve Carlton

 

In the same package I also got some BONUS unopened wax packs 1990 Donruss & 1990 Upper Deck, Plus a 1989 Topps Wax Pack with a wrapper that is majorly miscut (and a piece of stale gum which is in at least two pieces now). I will post pics of those packs in another post sometime.